Chapter 1

World of Dragons, in the 19th Millenia Year 990 since the founding of the Hysponian Empire

The Elder of the village called Heorod, took the material components for the spell out of the vast ancient treasury hidden in the ancient fortress keep that made the heart of the small community. He was sad every time the material wealth of their forbearers had to be used for a spell. This time it was going to be the costliest summons their people have done in a hundred years. He was but a small child the last time, yet he understands the risks of summoning a hero or beast from the other worlds.

He also knew that the ancient mages who did the last summons, never taught the acolytes everything, so he was worried the results could be just as bad as the monstrosity that was targeting his people. What choice did he have, to the north were impassible mountains filled with Dragons and all manner of creatures that mere mortals couldn’t face.

To the south were the Human Kingdoms who hated his kind as mere monsters, and only valued as slaves, and the secret lands under the mountains where all kinds of evil lurked, the rumored lost empires of the dark elves and their spider god. They couldn’t leave and staying held great risks. This latest horror from the abyss came on cloudy nights and stole away villagers. A few were eaten the rest had vanished.

He turned to leave the treasury and sighed. Looking over the doorway that led up to the Keep. He saw the map of the world on a special tapestry.

The land was shaped like a segmented crescent, that reached both the north and south poles before sweeping back towards the center.

The village elder has read much of the known histories, of how once the world was ruled by Great and terrible Dragon Gods, until the four world powers over turned their rule, and banished them.

To the south was the human continent. It was mostly taken up by the Hysponian Empire that was founded about nineteen thousand years ago. History records that an army of well-trained elite troops made up of High Humans conquered a city to the south, they slowly created the first Human Empire, the remaining nations on that continent are a part of a Commonwealth that owes allegiance to the High Humans and the Emperor of Hysponia.

To the North, and where their village technically sat was the Continent of Dragons. Unlike the human continent, demi-humans ruled the vast majority of these lands. There was Elves of the Faelands on the west half of the continent. At the top of the world Dwarves maintained a throne at what they called the true North Pole. In the eastern part of the continent were an array of Empires. Unfortunately, the southern portion sat the massive Dragon Mountains, this was where their village could be found. Some of the peaks are believed to be so tall as to be outside of breathable air. Under these mountains are cavernous lands known as the Darklands, they are ruled by Dark elves, and other beings which never come up to see the daylight. Which is where the problem lies for his village, every hundred years or so some monster or other fiend finds the rout to the surface that leads to their village. Fortunately, such beings have little tolerance for light, and tonight’s full moon is not only a perfect time for summoning aid, but also a reprieve from the assault by the creature.

He looked again to the map and wondered what the other two major continents in the southern hemisphere were like. All he knew was they were split in twain by a river that was large enough in places to be considered a long narrow sea. With the western side being mountainous with large jungles, and the eastern side to be a flatland with grassy plains, those lands where nearly inaccessible by land, with a massive dessert separating Hysponia and the lands to the south.

After a moment’s pause, he checked the offerings in his hand, and left out the door and up the stairs to the waiting courtyard with his collection of treasures.

Somewhere in Los Angeles California, Earth, 2019.

The person sat in their chair, staring at the screen. The only enjoyment left in their life was sitting and staring at what other people were doing with their lives and arguing with them about politics and religion. Gone were their days of youth, they had had a full life, they had decided today was it, they couldn’t go on, they had lived a hell of nearly 50 years of life, they had gender identity issues since they were a small child, lower back issues from their time in the US Marines, and trust issues with love from a failed marriage, and other dating mishaps which caused them to not only hate themselves, but to refuse to open up and allow anyone else to love them, they were sick of it all.

On their lap they had a m1911a1 service pistol. They had cleaned it, used it at the range, and loved this weapon, it was at their side everywhere they went. Leaning against the desk was their Daniel Defense Ambush 300 hunting rifle. This one was set up with hard sights, and they had been cleaning it earlier as they had been to the shooting range earlier that day. Unlike the service pistol it was illegal to purchase a service rifle as a civilian, so they had a long history of collecting AR15 variants. Some of these were so close to the real thing it would take an expert to tell them apart. However, the variants they actually liked best were specialized hunting rifles which often ended up lighter and less bulky than the ones meant to look like a M16.

The DD Ambush 300 had a small magazine with only 5 rounds and was very accurate up to 500 yards. This was fine for them, since the days of using a rifle to hit a target at over 1000 yards were long gone. Age has a way of making the distances with hard sights get shorter, sure they could use a scope, they had purchased many over their life, but it took away a vital portion of their pride as an expert shot to use them. The only thing between them and the target where prescription safety glasses, bits of metal, and the air which the bullets traveled. There was a special thrill when you got a perfect shot with hard sights that you never felt with a scope. Hell, the only type of hunting they liked better was with a bow, but since their health took a turn towards the worse, bow hunting was right out. You had to be in shape to use a bow perfectly, something their back refused to cooperate on.

They sat there and wondered if there was a heaven or hell. In their life looking to cure Gender Dysphoria they had studied all the worlds beliefs and mysteries. As a young child they were raised by their father who was Southern Baptist, their mom was Jewish, so technically they were too, but they never felt like it. As a young adult they joined the US Marine Corps. The Marines failed to cure the deep-down dysphoria they felt. So, they had gone on a spiritual journey around the world once free of service. They had sitting on a shelf in the room books and artifacts of all the world’s religions, and all the world’s magical traditions. Sure, science gave hormones, and surgery. Sadly, they were built like a football linebacker. Most women would have considered them a hunk when they were young. Even now with a ruined body, and a bald head, they were overwhelmingly masculine standing at six foot three inches when they stood tall. However, thanks to back problems they hunched a bit.

Ten years ago, they started a legal transition, hormones hardly helped as they add but do not take away. They had naturally large breasts, but they still looked like a monster of a man in the mirror. To make the dysphoria worse they had typical male pattern baldness, and no matter how many sessions of hair removal they still had a full beard. They had tried everything, they knew for a fact that there were no gods, no magic that could make a difference on Earth, they had accepted that Science was their only salvation, so far even science had its limits.

They lifted the pistol, chambered a round and closed their eyes. They placed it against their head, waited, and then cleared the chamber and holstered it, while crying. Not tonight then.

World of Dragons, time for a Summons

The large courtyard was cleared of all debris. It was marked with chalk markings by the village acolytes in the ancient magical ways of dragons. The summoning circle was almost as large as the courtyard which was about 500 paces of an average sized person.

On the Outside of the circle were four sacrificial alters at each of the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west. There was also the spot the elder would stand with his personal podium set up with his magical tools. The podium was set to face the magical pole in the east. Although people called it a magical pole, it wasn’t the same as the magnetic pole of the north. It was instead a point in the heavens that sat consistently to a spot in what was basically east for his community. Depending on where you were in the world it would be somewhere slightly different. Once an ancient wizard calculated the location of the magic pole. It was at a place that sat halfway between the world and the moon, always sitting basically at midnight on the equator as it’s shortest distance. It was an invisible point in the nights sky, unless on the rare occasions the moon passed that point, then it looked like a tiny dot against the bright white of the moon. He handed the acolytes the sacrifices for each of the alters and walked to his position next to his podium.

To the north alter was a precious geode beautiful on the inside yet earthy textures on the outside, this was to represent the Earth.

To the south a fire red ruby, that shone brightly and fiercely in the moons light and thus a gorgeous offering for fire.

To the West a perfect pearl the size of a human heart, Water so did love the beauty of a pearl.

Last but not least, for the Air in the East, a hand sized sapphire that was perfectly cut, aery and light.

Any one of these sacrifices could feed the village for a year, he was glad that their community had magical wealth still after thousands of years guarding the gateway to the abyss.

He was ready, yet he was scared. He memorized the spell perfectly, it was the things not written that troubled him. Usually spells of summoning contained names of the summon monsters and where the beings where found in the ether. This spell had no name, and the location of the summoned entity was said in words he didn’t understand. He learned them, as the spell did have a side bar of notes that included the pronunciations, his last fear was nowhere in the spell was any compulsion of obedience included, in fact there was a warning that any attempt at changing the spell to include one would cause everyone to be compelled to that which was summoned.

Still this was his peoples last chance spell, and it was one of the most powerful summonses they had. He remembered as a child when it was last used. The heroic being made of metal that roared with a massive sound and had four High Human’s as it’s master. The metal beast died shortly afterwards. It still lay in the center of the village with its long metal trunk pointing towards the cavern entrance that over looked the side of the village. The four High Humans left south after defeating their foes. That was almost a hundred years ago.

He wondered if the High Humans still lived, they were mysterious and amazing beings. Unlike the common human, High Humans had the potential to use magic like an elf and could fight in armor like an Orc. His peoples written histories said that it was the Dragons who took the first High Humans and created all the mortal races around two million years ago. Each of the mortal races were excellent at one thing but were weak in others.

His kind was strong at raw magic and seduction, they could convince people to do things. Most of their kind that became adventurers became Bards, only a few like himself choose to follow pure Magic. However, as their village stood at the entrance of the great abyss, their village had an ancient tradition of Wizards. He was always proud of being talented with learned magic. His only regret was his mentor died before all the oral traditions were taught.

He walked slowly to the podium, looked at each of his tools. He took the colorful cross and draped it over his head. He only wore this necklace when he had to do spell work. It used all the elements as a focus point. It also made his intelligence increase, which was great for spell work, but bad for social interaction, which was also important as village elder.

He then checked his wand which was made from a leg bone of a displacer beast. His knife was the claw tip of a gold dragon who gifted it to him as a young adventuring wizard.

The chalice was a simple cup given to the last village elder by the High Humans. It was a kidney shaped metal cup with a hinged metal handle. The cup was made from a type of star metal, it turned out to be quite good for magical ritual.

He then cleared his voice loudly so everyone in the valley could hear him. His use of Booming Voice was useful as village elder, it was a rare upgraded version of the Bard Spell Amplify which had expanded range that could be heard by everyone in the valley. “Everyone to your places, we begin in a moment.”

The people not a part of the summons had moved to the tower portion of the Keep and a few faces where watching from the many windows and fighting holes dotting the tower. All two thousand of his people were in the tower besides the clan’s mages, wizards, and witches for the summoning and the few town guards watching the walls. The Bards and clerics of the clan were in the keep ready to heal and help any who were in trouble.

The elder seeing that everyone was in position started his work.

He held up the claw dagger that was gold inlayed with magic runes and gems representing each of the elements. He then closed the circle in the courtyard and cast a simple purifying spell. Once he was satisfied that the circle was properly charged. He called on the power of the moon goddess, his peoples patron deity.

He then proceeded to call on each element and faced each cardinal direction calling on the guardian of each compass point. Facing the point of the magic pole, he started the summons.

It was now precisely Midnight at his location, it was time to harness the energies and powers of magic to their fullest. He started to glow with arcane power as he chanted the spell. Which in turn caused the summoning lines to change from chalk to magical barriers, filled with the light of the moon.

The alters glowed brightly in each of their elemental colors’ red for fire, blue for water, yellow for air, and green for earth.

For those watching they could see the colored energy were in the shape of the runes that ruled the elements which looked like triangles. The offerings slowly vanished, and the elemental brightness increased until it was painful to look directly at the alters.

The acolytes standing in a semi-circle behind the elder were singing and chanting in harmony their part of the incantation. The village elder in a firm a powerful voice recited the incantation perfectly. His words sounded as if a Dragon was speaking, as the language of magic was also the ancient language of Dragons.

At the crescendo of their voices, the elemental energies had been absorbed into the center of the circle and started to spin and merge. Everything inside the summoning circle started to look like a multi-colored tornado of air, earth, fire, and water reaching far in to the nights sky.

And then it stopped in sudden silence. The incantation was done. The tornado vanished. The energies had vanished in a blink of an eye. Only the outside circle had any power left as the barrier was still visible.

The village elder started to panic, as nothing was there. He was worried that they did it wrong somehow. He was about to move from his position when he saw a rip in spacetime, the entire center of the circle was replaced by a bright flash. Causing him to fall down.

In a house in L.A. in a part of town known as Northridge, but not for long.

They reached for their rifle, they would live another day. Every time they thought ‘now was the time’, the heaven hell question came to mind. Even though they were an atheist they couldn’t drive out the last nagging possibility that maybe there was something else unseen and unknown.